WEE BIT OFF TOPIC

[chiz]

Hi
  If any of you FJers would like to feel what  it was like to ferry a heavy bomber across the Atlantic during war time hers your chance. The Mynarski Lancaster will take off from Hamilton in August then to Goose Bay, Greenland,  Iceland and on to England for air shows there this summer.
   Bids are up to $51,000.00 with two days left... here is the link. 
    http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Avro-Lancaster-Bomber-Flight-/251519471501?ssPageName=ADME%3AL%3ALCA%3ACA%3A1123

Chiz 

[fj1289]

Wow!  That's a lot better than what I normally get paid to ferry a small twin engined unpressurized airplane across the North Atlantic!   I need to look into that....oh, wait, people are going to pay that for the experience of doing it?!  Holy cow!   That Branson space flight thing doesn't look so expensive after all...

Seriously cool experience though - and would the chance to take an old war horse like that across

[FeralRdr]

I've always liked the esthetics of the Lancaster.  It just has a look of elegance and power.

[simi_ed]

Cool Pic!  FYI, the Lancaster has 4 ea of of the Allison V-1710 that also powered the Mustang.

[craigo]

Cool Pic!  FYI, the Lancaster has 4 ea of of the Allison V-1710 that also powered the Mustang.

Hey there Ed, I thought they were the Merlin RR engines that powered the Lancaster. Just like the Spitfire Mark IX, the P-51 and the Mosquito.

CraigO

[simi_ed]

Yep, I stepped into that one.  Sorry, tried to sound like I knew something ...   I even saw a Merlin at the Smithsonian

[Burns]

Yep, I stepped into that one.  Sorry, tried to sound like I knew something ...   I even saw a Merlin at the Smithsonian

I don't think you stepped in too deep. I believe the first generation P-51's  had the Allisons but the next generation (the fast ones) were RR Merlin powered.

[fj johnnie]

 That plane flies over my house a lot in the summer. One of two flying examples left in the world. It is going to England to fly along the other.

[simi_ed]

Right on both counts. Our friend/docent at the Smithsonian made my jaw drop when he casually mentioned the SuperMarine and Lancaster both used the Merlin.  That's when he mentioned the pictured Merlin, fresh out of the crate.  Cool tech, especially for 70+ years ago!

[Burns]

Right on both counts. Our friend/docent at the Smithsonian made my jaw drop when he casually mentioned the SuperMarine and Lancaster both used the Merlin.  That's when he mentioned the pictured Merlin, fresh out of the crate.  Cool tech, especially for 70+ years ago!

I suspect some pylon racer would give a first child for  a merlin fresh from the crate.

[airheadPete]

That'd be a helluva lotta fun, wonder what MTBF' s are on Merlins nowadays. Once in a lifetime is right. Got to sit in in the a/c's seat of an airworthy B-17 once, getting to look out over the four engines gives you goosebumps.
Something that really impressed me about the Lanc is that it's a single-pilot airplane! Like the Mosquito. Night, over Germany, one twenty-year old driving the thing? Oh dear God.

BTW: Allisons on P-51A's and P-38's, Merlins on the English stuff, and then we had the Packard-built Merlins. Typically, differences were down to either one or two blower stages and what compression ratios the blowers were. Different marks were optimized for operation at different altitudes.
Oh, how we missed purple gas. (115/145)

[ribbert]

I suspect some pylon racer would give a first child for  a merlin fresh from the crate.

About a decade back we had a case here with a bloke restoring a Spitfire. He had two Merlins, the original, which was away being re conditioned and a brand spanking new one in a crate.
The guys doing the resto asked if they could install the crated motor for the purpose of doing all the plumbing while waiting for the original motor to come back and save some time.

The owner agreed on the condition it wasn't to be started. Well, start it they did, possibly thinking no one would ever know and they could check that everything was in order.
The engine was filled with a preserving agent, not oil, and they had merely checked the level before starting it. They ruined the motor.

The owner was seeking, and if IIRC was awarded, $1,000,000 for the damage. That was a decade or more ago and I guess puts a price on a crated Merlin.

Footnote:  My brother was the lawyer appearing for the owner and just recently when having a clean up gave me a 6" high pile of papers relating to the case including many copies from the original Merlin workshop manual. I love reading that stuff.

Noel

[chiz]

25 years ago I worked on those two port engine fire walls an the bomb doors. Don't let this prevent you all from bidding though I was only stripping old paint.
Chiz